WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:23.000 They've automated the process of getting newspapers, but they haven't 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.001 computerized it yet. That is not unless you have a personal computer, a modem, 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.001 and access to an online database. Then you can read papers from all over the 00:00:30.001 --> 00:00:34.001 country, and you don't even need exact change. Today we begin a special two-part 00:00:34.001 --> 00:00:38.001 look at online services on this edition of The Computer Chronicles. 00:01:01.001 --> 00:01:06.001 The Computer Chronicles is made possible by Leading Edge, makers of IBM 00:01:06.001 --> 00:01:10.001 -compatible computer systems, including Lotus Lookalike spreadsheet, word 00:01:10.001 --> 00:01:14.001 processing with spelling correction, communication software, and Haze-compatible 00:01:14.001 --> 00:01:19.001 1200-baud modem, Leading Edge with over 1,000 service centers nationwide. 00:01:21.001 --> 00:01:25.001 Additional funding is provided by McGraw-Hill, publishers of Byte. Byte's 00:01:25.001 --> 00:01:29.000 detailed technical articles on new hardware, software, and languages cover 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.001 developments in computer technology worldwide. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.000 Welcome to The Computer Chronicles. I'm Stuart Chafay, and sitting in this week 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.001 for Gary Kildall is George Morrow. George, I don't know how much of a gambler you 00:01:45.001 --> 00:01:49.000 are, but here is an example of how far online services have come. We're on 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.001 QuantumLink, something called the casino. As you can see, I'm online here with 00:01:52.001 --> 00:01:55.000 lots of players around the country. We can talk up and back here at the bottom of 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.000 the screen. I can go in here and place a bet and actually play the slot machine. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.000 See if I can win some money, not real money, of course, here. Now look at the 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.001 graphics on this thing. What does this tell you about this approach to online 00:02:06.001 --> 00:02:11.000 information? Well, this game works very well for a media that's basically warm to 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:15.000 sometimes hot. Some of the online services, you think you're back in the days of 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:20.001 talking to a teletype with a computer. What you have to do is you have to play 00:02:20.001 --> 00:02:24.001 your interface to the warmness of the media, and some of the better online 00:02:24.001 --> 00:02:27.001 services are doing that. They're all going to have to learn how to do it. George, 00:02:27.001 --> 00:02:30.001 today we're going to take a look in this first of a two-part series on online 00:02:30.001 --> 00:02:34.001 services, a general interest online database such as QuantumLink and CompuServe. 00:02:34.001 --> 00:02:37.001 We'll take a look at the Dow Jones News Service, Delphi, and one of the rare 00:02:37.001 --> 00:02:41.001 looks at France's Minitel system. Now George, you know you can read the entire 00:02:41.001 --> 00:02:44.001 San Francisco Chronicle online now, if you like. Unlike something I always wanted 00:02:44.001 --> 00:02:48.000 to do. Well, if you do want to do that, we have a report for you on that. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:55.001 Newspaper publishing is largely an art of mind over matter. How to put ideas and 00:02:55.001 --> 00:03:00.000 events into physical shape as quickly as possible. One of the obstacles to 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.001 assembling that information has been the printed document itself, the thousands 00:03:04.001 --> 00:03:07.001 of pages that flow out of printing presses every day. 00:03:08.001 --> 00:03:13.000 Typically the masses of photos, drawings, and words are carefully clipped and 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:18.001 stored in bulging files where they become historical material. Today, at some 00:03:18.001 --> 00:03:23.000 major newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, paper files are being replaced 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:29.000 with online digital storage. Working through an online service called DataTimes, 00:03:29.001 --> 00:03:32.000 the Chronicle is building an electronic library. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:38.001 Each day's news stories are added to the database within 24 hours. The key to the 00:03:38.001 --> 00:03:43.000 system's speed is the software, which takes the final story as entered into the 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.000 newsroom's computers and automatically reformats the writer's editing commands 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.000 into retrievable library form. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:57.000 After some classifying and editing by the Chronicle's library staff, stories can 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:02.001 be recalled by keywords, subject, or by other cross references. If a reporter 00:04:02.001 --> 00:04:08.000 needs background information, he can scan through the titles of past stories and 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.001 view the full text of those that are the most relevant. DataTimes gathers 00:04:12.001 --> 00:04:17.001 articles from 30 metropolitan newspapers as well as some foreign news services. 00:04:18.001 --> 00:04:24.001 In the early days of computing, memory storage was precious and costly. Today, 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:30.000 the newest form of information storage is taking its place alongside one of the 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.000 oldest and most valued. 00:04:46.001 --> 00:04:50.000 Joining us now in the studio is Steve Case, Vice President of Marketing for 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.000 QuantumLink and with us also Stephen Fickas, a West Coast Account Executive with 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.001 CompuServe. George? When you think about H&R Block, usually you think about going 00:04:58.001 --> 00:05:02.000 in and getting your taxes filled out. What is it? Why is it that H&R Block 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.001 invested in CompuServe and what are they going to bring to it? Well, there's 00:05:05.001 --> 00:05:09.001 actually three different areas that H&R Block will benefit from having CompuServe 00:05:09.001 --> 00:05:16.001 under its portfolio, let's say. And those are in the online access 00:05:16.001 --> 00:05:21.000 to information. That's one area. That's growing really quickly. The other area is 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:25.000 network services, nationwide network services linking people's personal computers 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:30.000 into these host computers that major corporations have. And finally, the actual 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.001 building of a company's information service that people remotely can get into. 00:05:34.001 --> 00:05:38.001 All those three areas are growing very quickly and H&R Block should probably 00:05:38.001 --> 00:05:42.001 benefit from that, I think. Stephen, I love these online services and a lot of 00:05:42.001 --> 00:05:45.000 people are great fans of them, but as you know, you get a lot of complaints from 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.000 users. You have your feedback thing. I'd be interested in knowing one of the 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:52.000 biggest complaints. What would people like to see done better on these online 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:57.000 services? Well, it tends to be things jumping around to other services easily. 00:05:57.001 --> 00:06:02.000 The movement going from one access to another, it seems to be the key complaint 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.001 that we get, if any. Making it easy to use is one thing, but really people like 00:06:06.001 --> 00:06:10.000 to jump instantly to the other services they use. That means the time lag, it's 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.001 the one moment, please, dot, dot, dot. Exactly. Let me ask you one of my 00:06:14.001 --> 00:06:18.000 complaints. The problem of different languages, different commands in different 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.001 parts of the service, why can't that be cleaned up so you can learn one set of 00:06:21.001 --> 00:06:25.001 commands and go anywhere? Well, you know, that tends to be a function of how many 00:06:25.001 --> 00:06:30.000 different bits of information we have sitting out there on our service. And you 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.001 know, we have to try to structure it so it standardizes some approaches. But, you 00:06:33.001 --> 00:06:37.000 know, some of the things you do are like database management 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:38.001 and some of it is like spreadsheets. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:42.001 Why don't you guys get together with the big hitters in those to make your 00:06:42.001 --> 00:06:46.000 interfaces more familiar? If you're doing database management, why not think 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.000 about a connection with Ashton Tate? 00:06:48.001 --> 00:06:52.001 If you're doing a spreadsheet stuff or financial stuff, why not look for the 00:06:52.001 --> 00:06:57.001 Lotus interface? Now, this thing where Lotus is teaming up with one of these 00:06:57.001 --> 00:06:59.001 services is certainly a good example of that. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.000 It's something that... Well, you can bet we're exploring all those areas. Yeah, 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:08.000 you know, there are some areas that we could improve on and it's definitely... 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.001 Well, you're talking to a couple of us that use it a lot. We feel these things. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.000 Right. Steve, what about QuantumLink? What kind of feedback to get from 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:18.000 QuantumLink users? You have a kind of more graphic, friendly, home approach to 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.000 your online service. Right. We just launched QuantumLink a year ago in November. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.001 And when we entered the market, we saw three problems for 00:07:23.001 --> 00:07:25.000 consumer users of online services. 00:07:25.001 --> 00:07:28.001 The first is they're too expensive. The second was they're just too difficult to 00:07:28.001 --> 00:07:32.001 use. And the third is they just weren't fun. And so what we've tried to do is 00:07:32.001 --> 00:07:36.000 develop a service specifically for Commodore users that's just very easy to use. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.001 The commands, as you mentioned, work the same across the entire system. Very 00:07:39.001 --> 00:07:42.001 inexpensive. And there's just a lot of things that are useful to a Commodore 00:07:42.001 --> 00:07:46.000 user, but they're also fun. We're not afraid to have fun. Yeah, CompuService was 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.000 very well known. I guess the largest online service. A lot of our viewers are 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:52.000 familiar with it. I'd like you to show us QuantumLink though, which is specially 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 designed for Commodore users. Right, Steve? Sure. And show us what the kinds of 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.001 things you can get on QuantumLink. What we're looking at right now is the 00:07:57.001 --> 00:08:00.001 QuantumLink main menu. As you see, there's eight different departments on the 00:08:00.001 --> 00:08:04.001 service. To move around, all you do is use this cursor key and flash around to 00:08:04.001 --> 00:08:07.001 the different departments. Down here are most of the information and transaction 00:08:07.001 --> 00:08:11.000 services. Commodore Information Network is where you can get help from Commodore. 00:08:11.001 --> 00:08:15.000 And Commodore Software Showcase is where there's over 4,000 free public domain 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.001 programs. Show us people connection, for example. Okay, just pop up to that 00:08:18.001 --> 00:08:25.000 particular area. Press F1. That's the select key to pull up that menu. We're 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.000 loading a screen from the disk so the graphics don't have to be transmitted over 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 the timeline. The graphics are on the software here. They're not coming online 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.001 obviously. Right, so it gives you that friendly feel without you having to wait 00:08:33.001 --> 00:08:37.001 for the transmission time. People connection is what we call a social center of 00:08:37.001 --> 00:08:41.000 the system. That's where people meet in rooms like a lobby, which you see here. 00:08:41.001 --> 00:08:45.000 And they can chat with each other, conduct conferences. We have special guests, 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:48.001 rock stars, and computer programmers. Just like your CB simulator, I guess, the 00:08:48.001 --> 00:08:51.001 same thing with the console. Precisely. And going back to the issue of user 00:08:51.001 --> 00:08:55.001 interface, we've tried to build in just one key to pull up the commands you would 00:08:55.001 --> 00:08:59.001 like to anytime you want to get to anywhere. And that works the same no matter 00:08:59.001 --> 00:09:02.001 whether... Across the entire system. So we've tried to take the concepts of 00:09:02.001 --> 00:09:07.000 interaction and just make it much simpler for the average user. So you're online 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:12.001 now in people... What do you call it? People... People connection. And we're in 00:09:12.001 --> 00:09:16.000 the lobby and you can see there's 23 people now with us in the lobby. We can type 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.001 a message like, hi, it comes down at the bottom and simply press return. It will 00:09:19.001 --> 00:09:24.000 be broadcast to everybody in that room. There are always dozens of different 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.001 rooms. And you can create your own. We can create a room called Chronicles if we 00:09:26.001 --> 00:09:31.000 like. So it really allows you to personalize. But two people, you have chosen to 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:35.000 be very specific to a piece of hardware where CompuServe does have a tougher... 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:38.000 You guys have got a tougher job because you're trying to get a lot of different 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:43.000 computers. Let me ask you both a question about this. But I've gone on the people 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.001 link type thing and the CB simulator. Does anybody ever say anything meaningful 00:09:46.001 --> 00:09:50.000 or useful in these things? You hear an awful lot of straight chit-chat. 00:09:50.001 --> 00:09:54.000 Well, there's a couple of different classes. We have scheduled conferences each 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.000 night. In fact, we publish a program guide much like a TV guide. In any 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:01.000 particular night, there's seven or eight events with some real people and you can 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:05.001 ask questions. There is a lot of just very social banter. It really is an area 00:10:05.001 --> 00:10:09.001 for people to just meet friends and talk about whatever their interests are. Some 00:10:09.001 --> 00:10:12.000 of which are real and some of which are... We've heard about people meeting and 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.000 falling in love and getting married. Absolutely. I've heard stories that Quantum 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:19.000 Link is going to go beyond Commodore sometime. Is that true? We're looking at 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:23.000 that. Right now we are focusing very heavily on the Commodore market but we very 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:26.000 much think this approach would work in other segments of the home as well. 00:10:26.001 --> 00:10:30.001 Stephen, on the CompuServe side, are you guys playing around with ideas like this 00:10:30.001 --> 00:10:34.000 to lend a little more as George was talking about sort of a hot medium approach 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:39.000 to the user interface of CompuServe? Well, yes, we are playing a lot around with 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.001 graphics approaches and things like that. But again, you brought up a point. 00:10:42.001 --> 00:10:44.001 We're dealing with all different types of computers. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:48.001 So we're somewhat limited on what we can do out there locally. Yes, but what you 00:10:48.001 --> 00:10:52.001 could do is you could ask what kind of software the fellow is using, what is his 00:10:52.001 --> 00:10:57.000 com software environment, and what is his hardware environment. And knowing that, 00:10:57.001 --> 00:11:02.001 your job's got to be a lot easier in an environment like that. We've definitely 00:11:02.001 --> 00:11:07.000 got some products that are geared around that right now that we're coming out 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.000 with a new product that will actually be oriented for, for instance, the IBM PC 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:15.000 and that will work very effectively on accessing the different services within 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 that environment. Stephen, as you know, one of the most interesting things on 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.000 CompuServe or any of these services are the SIG, the special interest group, or 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.000 the special form, whatever you call it. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.001 And of course, the success of one of those SIGs depends a lot on the CIS op or 00:11:26.001 --> 00:11:29.001 the form administrators, we tend to call them now. Wendy Woods has a 00:11:29.001 --> 00:11:31.000 report on the life of a CIS op. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.000 As you can see, we're nowhere near what you might call a 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.000 bustling technological center. 00:11:38.001 --> 00:11:44.000 Yet here in this unincorporated area of Sonoma County in California, some 25,000 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:48.001 people can receive answers to their technical questions about IBM's and 00:11:48.001 --> 00:11:54.001 compatibles. This is the home and office of Don Watkins, formerly an MIS manager 00:11:54.001 --> 00:12:00.000 with the banking industry, now system operator for the five IBM special interest 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:05.001 or SIG areas of CompuServe. From his home, Don maintains and supervises the 00:12:05.001 --> 00:12:11.000 conference areas, data libraries, and message bases of CompuServe's Ohio-based 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.001 main frames. He's naturally a strong advocate of this new kind of networking. 00:12:16.001 --> 00:12:20.001 Well, they can get free or low-cost programs, user-supported programs, and they 00:12:20.001 --> 00:12:25.001 also have access to a huge intellectual base of talent and experience of people 00:12:25.001 --> 00:12:29.000 who have tried other products and perhaps would have a comment on those products. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.001 Don has been managing the IBM forums for five years now. He's watched the members 00:12:34.001 --> 00:12:39.001 change from hackers and hobbyists to mainstream computer users who are just 00:12:39.001 --> 00:12:44.000 interested in getting a job done. The SIGs, he says, have taken on a much broader 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.001 appeal and in our information-driven society, such resources, he says, can only 00:12:49.001 --> 00:12:54.001 get more popular. Again, I can talk to someone in New York City or Miami, Florida 00:12:54.001 --> 00:13:00.000 or Dallas, Texas about a product that they may know more about than I do and 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.001 finding out that information and being able to get a two-way dialogue going about 00:13:04.001 --> 00:13:08.000 it is very valuable. For the Computer Chronicles, I'm Wendy Woods. 00:13:21.001 --> 00:13:26.000 With us now in the studio is Nancy Tully, Senior Editor for Information Services 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:30.000 at Delphi, and next to Nancy is Clay Kokalas, Southwestern Sales Rep 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.001 for the Dow Jones Service. George? 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.001 You know, everyone knows that Dow's been a leader in financial 00:13:36.001 --> 00:13:38.001 services for a long, long time. 00:13:38.001 --> 00:13:44.000 Has Dow ever given any thought to bringing standards to some of this com software 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.000 and some of this online service? Well, that's a very, very challenging question 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.000 in the fact that it is not easy in this business to get together with other 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.000 corporations. But you people are big enough and you've got enough prestige where 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:59.000 you could press forward and get that done? Well, the problem we would have with 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.001 that is that there are so many different types of computers out there that we 00:14:02.001 --> 00:14:06.000 would really be getting ourselves into a nightmare and trying to know how to 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:10.001 support each actual type of equipment. I mean, you'd have to have something 00:14:10.001 --> 00:14:14.001 separate for the Apple world, for the IBM world, and then you'd have to make sure 00:14:14.001 --> 00:14:18.000 that these products work on all these various types of machines because we really 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.001 value our integrity. And if we're going to put a product out, we're going to make 00:14:21.001 --> 00:14:25.000 darn sure that it works on all the available equipment. Clay, let me ask you 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.001 about Dow Jones and also Nancy about Delphi. We were just looking before at 00:14:28.001 --> 00:14:32.000 CompuServe Quantum Linkset of General Interest Services. Dow Jones is a little 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.001 more specialized. What kind of people subscribe to Dow Jones? Well, you know, we 00:14:35.001 --> 00:14:39.001 have a large number of subscribers, but we're not kidding anybody in that our 00:14:39.001 --> 00:14:44.001 best market is our corporate customers and that's who we are trying to develop. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:49.000 Financial information. Exactly. For the larger Fortune 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.000 500, Fortune 1000 type companies. 00:14:51.001 --> 00:14:55.000 Nancy, excuse me, George, what's the Delphi niche? Who would sign up with Delphi? 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.001 Delphi's largest growth over the last 18 months has been with the home user, with 00:14:59.001 --> 00:15:04.000 the person who has a new computer and wants to find out a lot about it. Our 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:08.001 latest growth effort has been with the small business person. What have you 00:15:08.001 --> 00:15:13.000 people done toward making the interface with the follow the tries to get it to 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.001 online better? Have you addressed yourself to an operating 00:15:15.001 --> 00:15:17.001 system, hardware or to comp packages? 00:15:18.001 --> 00:15:23.001 No, we do cooperate with a lot of the software manufacturers in getting Delphi in 00:15:23.001 --> 00:15:28.000 the box with those manufacturers, but we don't have any software package. Delphi 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:32.000 is very easy to use and has been judged so by a lot of product reviewers. Clay, 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.000 for people who are not familiar with the Dow Jones News Service, run us through a 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.001 little bit of the service. Okay, for example, the database we're going to be in 00:15:37.001 --> 00:15:39.000 right now is the Dow Jones database. You're 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:41.000 already online. Right. I'm already online. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.001 In this database, you can get the last 90 days worth of news and any publicly 00:15:45.001 --> 00:15:49.001 held company by their stock symbol or any industry by their industry symbol. And 00:15:49.001 --> 00:15:53.000 you'll notice that the information is as recent as 90 seconds throughout the 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:58.000 business day and it goes back 90 days. And for example, these are the last 90 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.000 days of headlines on IBM and it tells me that there are nine pages of headlines 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:06.001 and there's a two letter code next to each headline and to retrieve a story 00:16:06.001 --> 00:16:10.000 behind any headline, you just type in the two letter code. You can go pull up the 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.000 full text. Exactly. For example, we're going to pull up the full text of this 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:17.001 story. Could I ask you to keep track for me and put in a way in a file or 00:16:17.001 --> 00:16:19.001 something on two or three companies that I want to follow? Absolutely. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:23.000 We've got a track service that every time you access it, it allows you to create 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:27.001 a profile of 25 stocks and you can have five profiles. And every time you access 00:16:27.001 --> 00:16:31.000 it, it'll either go and get you the latest stock price and the most recent two 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:35.000 days worth of news or either one. So it'll all be collecting those stories even 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:38.000 though you're not online. Exactly. And every time you go online, it'll just give 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:41.001 it to you. Now the interface that you have is uniform across the different 00:16:41.001 --> 00:16:45.000 services that access your service. That's correct. That's correct. Now, for 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.001 example, here we're just going to get the headlines on the computer industry. And 00:16:48.001 --> 00:16:52.000 as you can see, there are 20 pages of headlines on the computer industry. And 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.001 what did you do? What symbol did you use to say computer? It's just .i slash EDP. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.000 I being industry, EDP being the electronic data. Which is the Dow Jones. Exactly. 00:17:00.001 --> 00:17:05.000 We have categorized every major industry, every major area under the stock 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:10.000 market, financial news, etc. to make it easy for the user to go directly and find 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.000 the most recent information. But you need a manual somewhere that tells you what 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.000 those three letter codes are. Well, either a manual, we have it online in a 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.000 separate database or the best way, of course, would be a separate database. Okay, 00:17:21.001 --> 00:17:25.000 it would just be the symbols database. I see. You would go and look up a stock 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:28.001 symbol or an industry symbol. And that tells you what to use. Can we give that to 00:17:28.001 --> 00:17:32.000 Nancy now? I'd like her to get Delphi online here so we can show Delphi in just a 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.001 second. If you can get off of that, Clay. And while we're doing that, Nancy, can 00:17:36.001 --> 00:17:41.000 you talk and type at the same time? How is Delphi different? It is one of the 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.001 smaller kind of alternative services. And how is it different from the other 00:17:43.001 --> 00:17:49.000 mainstream ones? It's a relatively new service. And it's different in that Delphi 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:54.000 was originated to be an online service. It wasn't born from excess 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:56.000 computer capacity or anything like that. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.001 It's very easy to use. I'm going to pull up an introduction to Delphi here in its 00:18:02.001 --> 00:18:06.001 main menu, which shows the different categories of information that we have. We 00:18:06.001 --> 00:18:10.001 also have many communications capabilities like electronic mail, real time 00:18:10.001 --> 00:18:14.001 conferencing. So you and I could have basically a telephone conversation across 00:18:14.001 --> 00:18:19.000 the country online. These are the different. So Delphi is fairly new, I guess, 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:22.001 but none of you people ever tell how many subscribers you've got, right? It's 00:18:22.001 --> 00:18:26.001 proprietary information. I see. You don't want to say how popular or how 00:18:26.001 --> 00:18:29.000 unpopular you are. I can tell you how fast Delphi has been growing. It's been 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:33.000 growing at 12 to 15 percent a year. Show us Delphi. Maybe we'll figure out for 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:37.000 ourselves. Okay. You can see that the information services range from business 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.001 news to travel, electronic mail, things like that. I'm going to look at the 00:18:40.001 --> 00:18:45.000 groups and clubs menu because that has been the most popular thing over Delphi 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:47.001 for the last year and a half. Is that a senior version of SIG special interest? 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:52.000 Yes. This is probably a fairly user friendly piece of software. I have to type 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.001 only a couple letters to make it unique from the other choices. And this shows us 00:18:57.001 --> 00:19:02.000 our various groups and clubs. We have groups for Atari all the way down to Wang, 00:19:02.001 --> 00:19:08.000 Macintosh, Apple II. We can look quickly at the Macintosh SIG and you'll see some 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:13.000 announcements and tells you who is in charge here. And it's telling me that I 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:16.001 have two new forum messages. Somebody has posted an answer to a question that 00:19:16.001 --> 00:19:20.000 I've prompted. What was that little buzz for? It was telling me that I have two 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.001 new messages and I have to pay attention. Mail alert. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:28.000 So we can see what I can go directly to the forum and it'll show me. What was 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.000 that report? Well, let's say it says press return to read my waiting messages. So 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.001 that's what I'll do. I posted a question that had to do with Excel software and 00:19:36.001 --> 00:19:39.001 to give somebody's life you some answers for that. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:46.000 And this is from the username Mad Max and he's posted that directly to me. Forum 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.001 is a public message system. Anybody can read this when they go into the next. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.000 Nancy, I've heard Delphi is less expensive than some of the others. Is it true? 00:19:52.001 --> 00:19:56.001 Yes. And by what factor and how? Okay, a lifetime membership to Delphi is only 00:19:56.001 --> 00:20:02.000 $49.95. You have a membership fee. That includes a handbook. And the $11 a minute 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.000 at night to $0.29 a minute during the day anywhere in the U.S. No monthly 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:11.000 minimum, no extra charge for $1,200. Thank you, Dow Jones and Delphi. Now in just 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.001 a minute, we're going to take a look at perhaps one of the most successful online 00:20:13.001 --> 00:20:16.000 systems in the world, France's Minitel. 00:20:16.001 --> 00:20:17.000 So stay with us. 00:20:30.001 --> 00:20:34.000 Joining us now in the studio is Jack O'Grady, the U.S. representative for Intel 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.001 Metique. Jack, you've got the Minitel and we can see why 00:20:36.001 --> 00:20:38.000 it's called Minitel over there. 00:20:39.001 --> 00:20:42.000 And first of all, let's open it up and see what that little terminal looks like. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:45.001 It's an awfully cute little piece of hardware there. And we've started, we're 00:20:45.001 --> 00:20:48.001 already online with Paris with the system in France. And I've asked you to show 00:20:48.001 --> 00:20:52.001 us how you actually do automobile shopping through the 00:20:52.001 --> 00:20:54.001 classifieds and explain what you've got there. 00:20:55.001 --> 00:21:00.000 In this one, I'm comparing two new cars, Mercedes, which I've already selected. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.001 Now I'm going to compare that with a Jaguar. Oh, good. And also the model number. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:09.000 Okay, so we'll pick a Jag sovereign 3.6. Right, two. Now you'll get a comparison, 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:15.001 which will help you buy one. Okay, and oh, look at that. And an American, a 00:21:15.001 --> 00:21:19.001 graphic display. Is your graphic display and a number. Comparing a lot of the 00:21:19.001 --> 00:21:23.000 different features of those two cars. Now the French government give these away. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.001 A lot of us over here in the computer industry think that's just a lot of 00:21:26.001 --> 00:21:31.000 socialist hap. It's probably more than that, Jack. Well, they're not given away. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:35.001 They're loaned in the same manner in which AT&T created a telephone market by 00:21:35.001 --> 00:21:37.001 giving handsets to people who became clients. So you lease the terminal, 00:21:37.001 --> 00:21:39.001 you would lease a phone here? Is that the idea? 00:21:39.001 --> 00:21:43.001 If you want more than one, you have to lease them. And the telephone company is 00:21:43.001 --> 00:21:49.000 getting over $2 million a year at least. Why should they give you or let you use 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:54.000 a terminal free? It cuts down on the paper directories, which you have to agree 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.001 to forego. And it's eventually going to cut down in the number of manual 00:21:58.001 --> 00:22:02.001 operators that you have servicing information. So a fellow gets this, he doesn't 00:22:02.001 --> 00:22:06.000 get any more, he does all his directory lookup using this then. Yes, every 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:10.000 telephone number of France is on the electronic database. How long do they feel 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.000 it takes before this pays off over directories? They feel that it's already 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:18.000 beginning to pay off. They projected that the investment in terminals would take 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.000 five years to pay off. They think it's paid off in four and a half. Can you get 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:28.001 us into something else on the system there, Jack? One of the popular services 00:22:28.001 --> 00:22:32.001 over there, the newspaper services like Le Monde, which is the largest newspaper 00:22:32.001 --> 00:22:37.000 in France. This is an online database sent to Le Monde, one of the biggest 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.001 newspapers in France. And they update this every two hours. You know you're 00:22:41.001 --> 00:22:44.000 getting your news fresh. So you could read the full paper online. 00:22:44.001 --> 00:22:48.001 Are people in fact doing that? Oh, absolutely. And in addition to that, all of 00:22:48.001 --> 00:22:53.001 the services, newspaper services, all of your classified ads, horoscopes, games. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:57.000 You get the full paper, not just the news stories. If I'm interested in financial 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:01.001 stuff, can I ask you to track, can I do full text searches on things like? Yes, 00:23:01.001 --> 00:23:05.000 it'll give you, it has a bourse. So this is an awful lot like a lot of the online 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:08.000 services here that these independent companies offer then. 00:23:08.001 --> 00:23:10.001 Very much so. All of them exist. And now this is 00:23:10.001 --> 00:23:12.001 offered through the phone company there in France. 00:23:12.001 --> 00:23:16.000 Yes. I see. Well, this terminal makes a lot of sense, Stuart. It sure does. And 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:18.001 as you were pointing out earlier, George, this really standardizes the system. 00:23:18.001 --> 00:23:22.000 Everybody going on the system has to adhere to the Minitel standards. It makes it 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.000 easy to use. Absolutely user friendly. 00:23:24.001 --> 00:23:27.001 Everybody's got the same terminal. Thank you very much. We're going to be back 00:23:27.001 --> 00:23:31.001 next week with part two of our look at, not U. S., but in general, online 00:23:31.001 --> 00:23:33.001 databases and online services. Stay tuned. 00:23:33.001 --> 00:23:35.001 We'll be right back with this week's computer news. 00:23:46.001 --> 00:23:50.001 In the random access file this week, Atari reportedly will be coming out with a 00:23:50.001 --> 00:23:54.001 low-cost laser printer during the first quarter of this year. According to some 00:23:54.001 --> 00:23:58.000 of the stories, the laser printer will resemble the Apple LaserWriter, but will 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:02.001 be different in that it will not have its own onboard processor or memory, but 00:24:02.001 --> 00:24:05.000 instead will use the computer's processor for its brain. 00:24:05.001 --> 00:24:11.000 The rumors are that the Atari LaserPrinter will sell for around $1,500. Atari 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:14.001 also reportedly will bundle the new laser printer with a complete desktop 00:24:14.001 --> 00:24:18.001 publishing hardware package, which will include a hard disk version of the 00:24:18.001 --> 00:24:23.001 1040ST. The whole desktop publishing system will reportedly sell for around $3 00:24:23.001 --> 00:24:29.000 ,000. At the Consumer Electronix show in Las Vegas this past weekend, Antic 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:34.000 Software showed off its new stereo tech glasses, which can turn an Atari ST 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:38.001 monitor into a three-dimensional display. The glasses use liquid crystal 00:24:38.001 --> 00:24:43.001 shutters, which are triggered as the Atari screen is refreshed. Antic says the 3D 00:24:43.001 --> 00:24:47.001 effect is twice as good as in a movie. There's already one software package for 00:24:47.001 --> 00:24:53.001 it called CAD 3D, and a 3D game is sure to follow. Mac users of the world united 00:24:53.001 --> 00:24:58.000 this past weekend at the annual Macintosh Expo in San Francisco. The recent 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:03.000 inroads of the Mac into the business market were evidenced by a 40% increase in 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:08.000 exhibitors at this year's Mac Expo. US Robotics has announced a special deal on 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:12.001 its new 9600 baud modem for bulletin board operators. BBS SysOps can 00:25:12.001 --> 00:25:14.000 get the new modems at half price. 00:25:14.001 --> 00:25:19.000 That means around $500 if you agree to post a notice on your board saying you're 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:24.000 using the US Robotics modem. A similar offer two years ago helped push sales of 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:28.001 the company's 2400 baud modem, which was the state of the art at that time. Time 00:25:28.001 --> 00:25:34.000 now for a look at software, and we go to our reviewer Paul Schindler. No home 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:38.001 handyman would dream of attempting to do repairs without a tool kit. Well, the 00:25:38.001 --> 00:25:42.001 same should go for any computer user. In the world of computers, the simplest of 00:25:42.001 --> 00:25:46.000 these tools are known as utilities. There are literally dozens of these little 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.001 hummers on the market, and they perform a variety of simple-minded tasks that you 00:25:49.001 --> 00:25:51.000 shouldn't have to do for yourself. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:56.000 One of these tools is called the page. Now, how many times have you seen this 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.001 happen? You use the DOS type command, and the information you wanted to see go 00:25:59.001 --> 00:26:01.000 skittering off the top of the screen. 00:26:01.001 --> 00:26:05.001 If you're fast and clever, you can stop it, but why should you be fast and clever 00:26:05.001 --> 00:26:09.001 when your PC can be fast and clever? Now let's look at that file again with the 00:26:09.001 --> 00:26:13.001 page. Notice how easy it is to see what you're looking for. Of course, you could 00:26:13.001 --> 00:26:17.001 do that with a word processor, but the page can show you the contents of any file 00:26:17.001 --> 00:26:22.000 that the type command can, and you can access the page with a path command from 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.001 anywhere on a hard disk. At $22, it would make a nice addition to anyone's system 00:26:26.001 --> 00:26:30.000 from Orion Microsystems in Waterbury, Connecticut. For the Computer 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:32.000 Chronicles, I'm Paul Schindler. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.001 The federal government has just concluded a study on the use of computers by the 00:26:36.001 --> 00:26:40.000 feds, and it shows that the government is way behind private industry 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:41.001 in upgrading computer equipment. 00:26:41.001 --> 00:26:46.000 The study found that the typical Fortune 500 company keeps a computer for less 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.001 than five years, while the typical government office keeps a computer 00:26:49.001 --> 00:26:51.001 for more than 10 years. 00:26:52.001 --> 00:26:56.000 Engineers in Scotland report a major breakthrough in the development of computer 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:00.001 chips, which use light waves rather than electrons. The key is a new coated 00:27:00.001 --> 00:27:04.001 glass. The coating layer can either reflect the light beam or let it pass 00:27:04.001 --> 00:27:07.000 through, thus accomplishing the switching function. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:10.001 The developers say laser chips could be the key to fast, 00:27:10.001 --> 00:27:12.001 compact parallel computing. 00:27:13.001 --> 00:27:17.001 Finally, the father of the video game and the talking bear, Nolan Bushnell, is 00:27:17.001 --> 00:27:22.001 back again, this time with Tech Force toys. These are robot toys that are 00:27:22.001 --> 00:27:28.000 activated by inaudible signals delivered in a television program. The robot toys 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.000 then become interactive participants with the TV show. The Tech Force toys are 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:37.000 due out this fall and may well become the high-tech toy hit of the next Christmas 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:40.001 shopping season. That's it for this week's Chronicles. We'll see you next time. 00:27:43.001 --> 00:27:47.001 The Computer Chronicles is made possible by Leading Edge, makers of IBM 00:27:47.001 --> 00:27:51.001 compatible computer systems, including Lotus Lookalike spreadsheet, word 00:27:51.001 --> 00:27:56.000 processing with spelling correction, communication software, and Hayes compatible 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.001 1200 baud modem. Leading Edge with over 1,000 service centers nationwide. 00:28:02.001 --> 00:28:06.001 Additional funding is provided by McGraw Hill, publishers of Byte, Byte's 00:28:06.001 --> 00:28:10.001 detailed technical articles on new hardware, software, and languages cover 00:28:10.001 --> 00:28:12.001 developments in computer technology worldwide. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:49.000 Thank you.